MEDALYON: “Visions” Gets A Reissue From Arkeyn Steel Records

MEDALYON, power/progressive metal band from Cleveland, Ohio, will get their first full-length album, “Visions” , reissued by Arkeyn Steel Records. “Visions” was originally released back in 1995 on CD, but this time Arkeyn Steel Records will be reissuing the album fully remastered (direct from DAT tapes) packed with lyrics, bio and fantastic vintage photos, plus many bonus stuff from demos and unreleased recordings.

Arkeyn Steel Records is planning to release a second MEDALYON release in the near future. More details on this will be revealed soon.

Tracklist:

1. So Uncertain2. Just A Thought3. All Your Days4. Victim Of Circumstance5. Time To Learn6. Visions7. Move Along8. Trouble9. Bottom Line10. Never Goodbye11. Kristina12. Don’t Want To Be In Love13. Soldier Boy14. Am I Dreaming?15. Rock Will Pull Ya Through16. Never Goodbye17. Master Of Your Mind

Formed in 1986 under the name Hollywood Eyes by Ray Zale and a very young Karl Mischler, recruiting Rick Shay and Gary Alexander in early 1987, and changed their name to Medalyon soon after. From this point they quickly began establishing a large local and nationwide fan base. Mischler and Zale had already wrote numerous songs by the time of the lineups completion in 1987, and these early songs (after recieving lyrics and melodies from Shay, including the “Hollywood Eyes” title track) as well as newer songs were self-recorded by the band on a 4-track recorder also in early 1987. After several months more of writing they went into Beachwood Studios for the first of many times, cutting “Medalyon”, a limited edition 5 song EP of their newest songs, released on Metaphor Records in early 1988. Later that year they were invited to perform at the ’88 College Music Journal conference in New York City, which led to their inclusion on the CMJ compilation CD “Join Rivers: Can We Listen?” with one of their “Medalyon” EP tracks, “Rock Will Pull Ya Through”, also released before the end of 1988. They recorded at Beachwood Studios on and off from 88 to 91, and in 1989 they started the recording of their debut full-length “The Time Has Come” by recording 5 songs (1 of them appears twice in different versions) and producing a 3 song promo/sampler cassette from them. Their next set of sessions at Beachwood in 1990 would produce the 6 songs to complete the album. By 1991 they had almost two albums worth of material, including still-unreleased songs like “Aliens”, “She-Devil”, “Too Late To Reach Me”, “On the Edge”, “Stand and be Counted”, “Your Love”, “Can You Show Me?”, “Fighting for the Rock”, “Crime of Passion”, and others. In concert they would sometimes play re-written metalized covers of originally non-Metal songs such as The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”.

In September 1990 they announced during an interview on Cleveland radio station WMMS that they would continue recording at Beachwood Studios and release their 10-song debut album, and would release a cassette single of songs from the album soon. However, instead of just a single of the 2 newly recorded album cuts “Animal Night” and “Lonely Heart”, they included the 3 1989 sampler cuts and combined them into the Limited Edition cassette EP “The Time Has Come”, which was also the title of their in-progress debut album, which was to include those 5 cuts as well as 5 still-unreleased songs “Your Love”, “Stand and be Counted”, “Crime of Passion”, “Kristina”, and “Fighting for the Rock”. However, after recording was finished, but before the final 5 songs could be mixed, Karl Mischler quit the band after being offered a spot in a recently major-label signed band, although this soon fell through and he would later join Akron Metal band Shadowplay. Gary Alexander left at the same time, as well. Because of this “The Time Has Come” album was shelved, never to be released. In late 1991 they established a new lineup with guitar duo Robby Nemeth and Tom Eframedes, and bassist George Malatesta, and they began writing an array of new material. First they recorded a demo of 2 songs co-written by Malatesta (“Never Goodbye” and “Whipping Boy”) before releasing a cassette single of the songs “Never Goodbye” and a totally re-written (by Nemeth) version of their 1987 demo track “Master of Your Mind” (only the lyrics and title remained the same between the two). This tape was supposed to be a single of songs from the upcoming “Visions: The New Communication” album. In 1993 a music video was filmed for “Never Goodbye”, but the filming was soon followed by the departure of George Malatesta, and in the end the video was shelved, and remains unreleased.

These were the only recordings done with the bands 2nd lineup, before Malatesta left in 1993. Due to Malatesta’s departure the “Visions” album was delayed, and the recordings from the single ended up never being released again, although a new version of “Never Goodbye” would eventually end up on the final version album. In 1994 Medalyon recruited Brian Louis. Louis’ addition solidified the 3rd and final Medalyon lineup, which would remain intact for the rest of their career. His influence helped their new style becoming more progressive, more technical, and less hook-driven then their previous “The Time Has Come”-era style. In the mid 90’s they were signed to German label Long Island Records and American label Fortunate Records. In 1995, after shortening its title, they released their long-planned debut full-length “Visions” on CD and cassette. T-shirts and posters were created as well, and the T-shirts actually say the full original title “Visions: The New Communication”. Only 2 songs from the earlier period of the band were on the album (those being “Victim of Circumstance” and “Never Goodbye”), the rest of the album being all new material that established their new style to their fans for the first time outside of live performances. Thier second album, “In The Test of Time” was released in 1999, but the bands history after that time is not known as clearly as their early days. They ended up disbanding in the early 2000s, and in 2008 Robbie Nemeth passed away.